Curtin University Homepage
  • Library
  • Help
    • Admin

    espace - Curtin’s institutional repository

    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
    View Item 
    • espace Home
    • espace
    • Curtin Research Publications
    • View Item
    • espace Home
    • espace
    • Curtin Research Publications
    • View Item

    Fire in ice: two millennia of boreal forest fire history from the Greenland NEEM ice core

    Access Status
    Open access via publisher
    Authors
    McConnell, J.
    Spolaor, A.
    Vallelonga, P
    Date
    2014
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citation
    McConnell, J. and Spolaor, A. and Vallelonga, P. 2014. Fire in ice: two millennia of boreal forest fire history from the Greenland NEEM ice core. Climate of the Past. 10 (5): pp. 1905-1924.
    Source Title
    Climate of the Past
    DOI
    10.5194/cp-10-1905-2014
    ISSN
    1814-9324
    Faculty
    Faculty of Science and Engineering
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/45547
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    Biomass burning is a major source of greenhouse gases and influences regional to global climate. Pre-industrial fire-history records from black carbon, charcoal and other proxies provide baseline estimates of biomass burning at local to global scales spanning millennia, and are thus useful to examine the role of fire in the carbon cycle and climate system. Here we use the specific biomarker levoglucosan together with black carbon and ammonium concentrations from the North Greenland Eemian (NEEM) ice cores (77.49° N, 51.2° W; 2480 m a.s.l) over the past 2000 years to infer changes in boreal fire activity. Increases in boreal fire activity over the periods 1000-1300 CE and decreases during 700-900 CE coincide with high-latitude NH temperature changes. Levoglucosan concentrations in the NEEM ice cores peak between 1500 and 1700 CE, and most levoglucosan spikes coincide with the most extensive central and northern Asian droughts of the past millennium. Many of these multi-annual droughts are caused by Asian monsoon failures, thus suggesting a connection between low- and high-latitude climate processes. North America is a primary source of biomass burning aerosols due to its relative proximity to the Greenland Ice Cap. During major fire events, however, isotopic analyses of dust, back trajectories and links with levoglucosan peaks and regional drought reconstructions suggest that Siberia is also an important source of pyrogenic aerosols to Greenland.

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Organic tracers from biomass burning in snow from the coast to the ice sheet summit of East Antarctica
      Shi, G.; Wang, X.; Li, Y.; Trengove, R.; Hu, Z.; Mi, M.; Li, X.; Yu, J.; Hunter, B.; He, Tianhua (2019)
      © 2019 Elsevier Ltd Biomass burning is a significant process in the Earth system, driving ecosystem dynamics and changes in global vegetation, and affecting the carbon cycle and climate. Projections of future fire activities ...
    • Biomarker distributions and stable isotopes (C, S, H) to establish palaeoenvironmental change related to the end-Permian mass extinction event
      Nabbefeld, Birgit (2009)
      Extinction, the irreversible loss of species, is perhaps the most alarming symptom of the ongoing biodiversity crisis. Some of the most significant changes in evolution throughout Earth’s history have coincided with ...
    • High-Resolution, Continuous Method for Measurement of Acidity in Ice Cores
      Pasteris, D.; McConnell, J.; Edwards, Peter (2012)
      The acid content of ice core samples provides information regarding the history of volcanism, biogenicactivity, windblown dust, forest fires, and pollution-induced acid rain. A continuous ice core analysis allows for ...
    Advanced search

    Browse

    Communities & CollectionsIssue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDocument TypeThis CollectionIssue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDocument Type

    My Account

    Admin

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors

    Follow Curtin

    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 

    CRICOS Provider Code: 00301JABN: 99 143 842 569TEQSA: PRV12158

    Copyright | Disclaimer | Privacy statement | Accessibility

    Curtin would like to pay respect to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members of our community by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which the Perth campus is located, the Whadjuk people of the Nyungar Nation; and on our Kalgoorlie campus, the Wongutha people of the North-Eastern Goldfields.